In Anglo-Saxon, “kyning-tun” meant “the Place of the King”. It was a royal manor before the Norman Conquest and remained popular with kings for many centuries. The Black Prince had a palace near Black Prince Road, and various kings over the years maintained houses in the area. James I gave the Manor of Kennington to the Prince of Wales, the future Charles I. In fact, much of Kennington is still owned by the present Prince of Wales. Kennington Park was common land where executions were frequently held, along with other fairground attractions. Fashionable houses were constructed in the area in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Charlie Chaplin lived in Kennington in his youth.

There was a hamlet called Kentish Town, also called St Pancras, in the Middlesex Forest in mediaeval times. The name probably comes from the Celtic word “Ken” meaning river and “ditch” meaning the Fleet River which passed through the area (now inside a Victorian iron pipe). It was a secluded village until the end of the 18th century when it began its conversion into a London suburb. Housing development commenced in the 1840s with villas for the moderately well-to-do. In the 1860s, when the Midland Railway came through the area, working class housing was created on a grand scale. Karl Marx lived for many years and died in Kentish Town.

Because Kew was originally a strip of land near the Thames, it got the name “Kew”. Kew is an anglicized version of “queue” meaning “tail” in French. Since Kew was close to Richmond Palace, many aristocrats had their houses there. The village and its green were mainly developed in the 18th century. Sir Henry Capel had a particularly grand house and gardens at Kew, which were bought by the Prince of Wales in the 1730s. He renamed the house Kew Palace. His widow, Princess Augusta, expanded the gardens which are now Kew Gardens - or to give them their full title, The Royal Botanic Gardens. Kew Gardens covers 300 acres. George III, who was nick-named “Farmer George”, had his children drilled in gardening there. George III demolished the palace in order to build a new one but never did. What is now called Kew Palace was in fact a nearby house called the Dutch House where the royal family lived while periodically renovating and destroying the actual palace.

The Edgware Road was part of Watling Street, a Roman road, and has remained a major route in and out of London ever since. The village of Kilburn began as a Mediaeval version of a service station on this road. Kilburn became a fashionable spa in the 18th century because of the Kilburn Wells which produced milky-looking water which was meant to be health giving. Once Belsize had been developed nearby, developers moved to Kilburn as the next area for development, and this process of urbanisation was pushed along by the arrival of the railways in 1879.

The area was originally called Broad Ford Bridge because there was a bridge here over the Fleet River. The name got corrupted to Battle Bridge and the legend was invented that Boadicea fought a great battle with the Romans there. In the 18th century it was a popular spa. The area took its modern name from a monument put up in 1836. It consisted of a 60 foot high statue of King George IV on top of an octagonal base, decorated with columns and statues of the four patron saints of Britain. The base was hollow and was used as a police station, then as a public house. The statue was so unpopular that it was taken down in 1842 and the public house was also demolished three years later. It was presumably called King’s “Cross” because it was built at the junction of Euston, Pentonville, St Pancras and Gray’s Inn Roads. It was used as a dump for ashes created by brick burning works in Gray’s Inn Road. The pile of ashes was so huge that when it was removed in 1826 it was widely believed the Russians had bought it to rebuild Moscow after Napoleon burnt it down. King’s Cross station was built in 1851-2 on the former site of the Smallpox Hospital.

Alfred the Great’s daughter gave the Manor of Lewisham to an abbey in Belgium in 918. Ownership presumably soon reverted to England. The area was mainly farmland. Lewisham High Street was quite a fashionable place to live in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Ravensbourne River ran through Lewisham and for some reason had a collection of watermills on its banks producing various metals. The Domesday Book lists eleven mills even at that time. Riverdale Mill, which was constructed in 1828, is the only mill which survives, and gave its name to the Riverdale shopping centre where it forms the focal point of an office development. The arrival of the railways in 1849 led to comprehensive development of the Lewisham area with terraces of houses and shops. It became a middle-class suburb in the 19th century, but deteriorated badly during the 20th century.

Leyton is an Anglo-Saxon word for “Farm on the Lea”. The River Lea passes through it. Since it was close to the City of London many rich merchants built houses here in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was originally part of the Forest of Essex. It contained marshland near the river. The Leyton Marshes were drained in the 19th century and railway yards and other industrial concerns were constructed there. Industrialisation led to the construction of houses for workers on the land. Parliament passed the Epping Forest Act in 1878 which preserved 200 acres of open land in Leyton as public parkland. The council bought the remaining land in Leyton Marshes in 1905 for public use. Leyton was quite severely damaged by bombing in the Second World War and extensively rebuilt afterwards.

Leyton is an Anglo-Saxon word for “Farm on the Lea”. The River Lea passes through it. Since it was close to the City of London many rich merchants built houses here in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was originally part of the Forest of Essex. It contained marshland near the river. The Leyton Marshes were drained in the 19th century and railway yards and other industrial concerns were constructed there. Industrialisation led to the construction of houses for workers on the land. Parliament passed the Epping Forest Act in 1878 which preserved 200 acres of open land in Leyton as public parkland. The council bought the remaining land in Leyton Marshes in 1905 for public use. Leytonstone was quite severely damaged by bombing in the Second World War and extensively rebuilt afterwards.

Sir John Stuart defeated a French army in southern Italy in 1806 at the Battle of Maida. A pub opened in the Edgware Road shortly afterwards called “The Hero of Maida” and when houses were built nearby the area came to be known as Maida Hill and then Maida Vale. The name now covers the whole area around the canal towards Paddington. In the 1840s onwards very grand houses were built here, particularly in the Warwick Avenue area. From the 1860s onwards less prestigious houses were built for the middle classes. There was a recreation ground in the north part of the area, and this was saved for the public in 1888, partly due to pressure by Winston Churchill’s father. Roger Bannister trained there for his four minute mile.

The correct name is St Marylebone. The Bourne stream ran through the area. When a new church was built by the stream, it was called St Mary’s by the Bourne. The name was later shortened to St Marylebone and applied to the larger area. The northern part of Marylebone was a royal hunting park, which also included the land were Regent’s Park now stands. The southern part eventually came into the possession of Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford and Mortimer. He decided to develop his estate and Cavendish Square was constructed in 1720, along with various supporting streets and squares. His daughter inherited the estate and married the Duke of Portland, and they continued the development of the estate. When Regent’s Park was created, the upper part of St Marylebone also became available for development and was turned into housing during the mid 19th century. Marylebone gave its name to the “MCC”, the governing body of cricket. In 1787 Thomas Lord opened a cricket ground in the Dorset Square area and formed the Marylebone Cricket Club. In 1811 Lord moved his turf to a new site in St John’s Wood. But that was in the route of the new Regent’s Canal, and he moved the turf again to the present location of “Lord’s” in St John’s Wood.